I love making pesto pasta, but here in Bangalore you don’t get Basil that easily , I know we can use the Holy Tulsi/Basil but that’s too strong, the Basil we get to buy the leaves are bigger to the once we grow at home and that gives good taste for the pesto sauce. so I was wondering what should I substitute Basil with, then I thought I could use either Palak/Spinach or coriander/cilantro and try but I had only coriander at home so I just decided to take a risk, and it turned out really good and tasty, coriander pesto sauce dint disappoint me, I am going to make it regularly and also try palak pesto next time. So here goes the recipe for walnut coriander pesto pasta.
Basic Information:
Preparation Time: 15 to 20 minutes.
Idle Time: nil
Cooking Time: 10 minutes
makes: 2 to 3 servings
Ingredients
Coriander – ¾ cup packed
Walnuts – 8 t0 10 cup
Olive oil – 1 tbspn + 1 tspn
Garlic – 3 small sized cloves
Cheese – ¼ cup grated + 1 tbspn or more according to your taste
Pasta – penne 200 grams
Mixed Vegetables – 1 cup (capsicum, mushroom, olives, jalapenos etc) add more if you like.
Water – 400 ml + 1tspn vegetable oil
Salt to taste
Oregano – ½ tspn
Chilli flakes – 1tspn (optional)
Method
First boil the water with 1tbspn of salt, once when the water comes to boil add the pasta and oil and let it cook for 15 minutes, it usually cooks perfectly between 11 to 15 minutes, when cooking in high boiling point. Once the pasta is cooked drain it and wash it under running cold water so that it does not cook further and also add some oil and mix the pasta so that it does not stick and keep aside.
For making the pesto sauce
Grind the coriander, walnuts, garlic, cheese and olive oil, grind it into paste and the sauce is ready
Now take a pan add 1 tspn oil and sauté the veggies by adding little salt. I had boiled the mushroom for 10 minutes with salt, so I dint need to cook the veggies much, one done add the pasta and the sauce and mix well. Now remove it from the flame and add oregano and chilli flakes and some more grated cheese mix well and serve with chilly garlic bread (which I usually make to go with the pasta).